#also i have a lot more sketches than finished colored things so i hope those are ok to post. i hope my handwriting is legible too...

[figcookie01]

popped into my head

[kittydoodle]

i just wanna talk a little bit about my art journey the past few years, about my mental health related to it, and about my recently rediscovered joy in art. this doesnt have any real point, id just like to share (under the cut because its pretty long lol)

for a very long time, like several years, i was deeply unmotivated and uninspired to make any art. getting out of high school and eventually quitting my first job, i just felt really depressed, and with undiagnosed psoriatic arthritis putting me in worse and worse pain every day, i was lucky if i could even physically sit down and get a doodle out.

i also held myself to secret unsaid rules about how to create my art. no starting a piece unless i intend to finish it in the same day. no creating anything that isnt fully colored and polished. no making anything that doesnt have perfect lines or proportions im perfectly satisfied with. it stunted my self expression, it took all the joy out of making my art, and it made me upset because i believed i was somehow losing my passion for making art.

i sincerely believed i was growing out of my desire to draw, forever. i was distraught and grieving. i couldnt even draw things i was excited to, i would think to myself, "wow! id love to draw this idea!" and then id sit down and think about how id have to finish a full, perfect piece, and id immediately lose my motivation. so all id ever make were full, finished pieces every once in awhile, and i was still deeply unsatisfied with them.

however, in the past 6 months or so, a few things have come together that have really restored my excitement for creating art

first, (DISCLAIMER: this is not advice! dont follow my example!) i quit my adhd meds. yes, really. i was suddenly out of them for a couple weeks and in those couple weeks i realized i felt better than i had in years, and, ironically, it was way easier for my to do chores without it. the only thing i can really think of to explain it is that i was on a stimulant medication for a very, very long time, like most of my working memory ive been on them. i guess after so long it stopped working the way it should to due to tolerance buildup and was just bogging me down instead of stimulating me.

second, i doodle, i sketch, i make quick drawings i have no intention of finishing. i allow myself not to finish or perfect a piece. i even draw random ideas i wont do anything else with, just for fun. at the advice of a few friends, i have forcefully practiced letting myself get messy and unrefined with my art so that its less intimidating, and to my surprise it actually worked.

third, i started arthritis meds and i listen to my body way better now so i can avoid inflaming and injuring myself, which makes it a lot easier to draw without pain! i even do stretches! im still working on fully effective treatment for my pain, but im doing at least a little better

i dont really know where im going with this tbh... for anyone who has followed me for a long time, uve seen this blog get quiet with little to no art posts for months and months at a time for the past few years, so i hope u are excited to see me posting more frequently again! i missed it! i hope u enjoy me now as much as im enjoying me!

im happy to be creating again and i hope i can keep my passion going! im happier now than i have been in an extremely long time, and im excited to show everyone the things ive been creating more often

umm thats all i guess! if u read this far ummmm One Big Kissaroo From Me To You okay 🩷🩷🩷 MWAH

[mijlen]

Finally finished with my latest custom doll!

It's a glam take on Minty from My Little Pony (G3), specifically A Very Minty Christmas.

Lots of details went into this doll, and it took far and away longer than any doll I've made before. I lost track, but the hours spent easily go above 20.

Details about the construction below the cut!

Face and body

I started with a Vandala Doubloons base for the face mold, which I sliced open 😱 to create my first set of inset eyes. I just love Vandala's face mold, it's very unique and cute compared to others in the MH line (My base stock box dolls have all been super well loved, btw, so no I didn't destroy a mint in box Vandala. I would NEVER!!) The body was a headless stock box Abby, but I only decided to do that after trying and failing to do a peg-leg transplant on Vandala. It didn't matter, in the long run, since I was going to be painting the entire body anyway. Lots of coats of mint green artist's acrylic, cut with lots of flow builder medium, and about three coats of Mr. Super Clear between those coats of paint, and I had my base.

I knew the silhouette and hair I wanted for Minty from my earliest concept sketches, and looking at them I realized: this silhouette won't look "right" on a standard MH slimline. So it was time for some Apoxie sculpt! I gave her some bust and butt implants, as well as some hip and tummy augmentation to round things out in a way that would better serve the design. Then, more paint and Mr. Super Clear to make the body cohesive.

Hair

The hair is entirely acrylic yarn. Not only wefts, but I also achieved the voluminous high pony look by needle-felting a ratted base, around which the rest of the wefts were attached. Then, I had to curl them. This was by far one of the most time consuming parts of the process, but I love the outcome. I used the hot chopstick technique. That is, heating up a metal chopstick with a straightening iron, and twisting individual strands of hair around it. It keeps the hair from scorching, and allows for some truly tiny, glamorous curls.

Clothes

The gown is hand-sewn, but definitely not removable lmao. It's hard to get such a tight fit on such a tiny doll without using stretch material, and I was using costume satin, so I just glued the bodice down once I'd done all I could with darts and alterations.

The skirt went through a few iterations, with different colors being layered in for the trumpet skirt including sheer mint green, sheer white chiffon, and different shades of pink satin. And yes, those were all fully sewn as I made the decision. 😭 Eventually I went with three tiers in the basic hot pink as the rest of the dress, figuring I would add the contrasting color pops with beading.

Oof, the beading. It was a lot of hand beading. Bedazzling? idk what to call it. All I know is that many hours were spent over a pile of rhinestones and beads with a wax pencil and some Liquid Fusion glue, listening to extremely long YouTube video essays as I worked. The more I added, the more I WANTED to add, and I decided not to pull punches.

I added some volume to the skirt with stiff tulle and a half-assed cage skirt made of armature wire. You can't see it, anyway - it's the EFFECT that matters. Speaking of things you can't see, she's just wearing some unembellished hot pink G1 Draculaura boots. 😂

Details

The accessories, including the peppermints and the Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane, were all made with Apoxie sculpt, hand painted/detailed, and varnished. Perhaps my favorite little detail are her "acrylics," which I added using a technique I saw Hextian use in a video - you touch a dab of hot glue to the doll's finger, then pull it back slowly, and trim once dry. This creates a really fun effect of fake nails.

So yeah. This doll was a labor of love, and I'm so glad I didn't take any half-measures along the way. I'm very proud of her. Hope you like her!

One more note: YES I realize the irony of not having any SOCKS involved in an MLP Minty design. I really do regret this, and agonized over it a LOT. I considered making a “pajamas version” of this same doll so I could do a socks-themed outfit, before I realized the dress would need to be glued on. 

[cupcakestreets]

Fren wants more ask game emojis??? Okay.

☕️ and 🎼 plus 📚

Yeah, dynamism is a bitch, so I don't blame you at all for getting nervous about it. Of course, the biggest change you can make is foreshortening and perspective, but that takes finding a source that can teach you in a way you understand, a lot of studying, and then trial and error. Which is worth doing, we (I'm saying this to myself too) really should study that. And it's a nightmare because first, you gotta find a source that explains the material in a way that makes sense to you, then you have to find a way to make the studying more fun and worst of all, you have to actually commit and do it. With foreshortening and dynamic posing in particular, the study can take a long while to complete because it does demand an understanding of anatomy, breaking the body down into simple volumes, applying perspective to each piece then knowing how to shade each volume correctly. So, depending on where you are with all those components, you may have to backtrack further.

So, what little changes can be made to increase dynamism in the interim? A pretty easy one is Rim Lighting, pure white is common, and so is really dropping the color values paired with a vibrant colored rim light (red, cyan, magenta are popular). Pushing the shading a bit more will help accentuate bent limbs, rotated torso's, overlapping body parts without having to go ham on foreshortening. Exaggeration of shapes like how Sonic uses big ass hands and big ass feet. Or the Big Pant Big Jackt meme and its variants from Twitter/X. You can try making frames and having feet, limbs, weapons or the top of the character's head extending past the border (typically the more, the better because if it's too little, it reads as a mistake than a choice). Line weight variation is pretty easy (thicker lines towards the shadows, thinner towards light source). Or extending certain lines past the outline and into the shape to create a more 3D look. While the whole trend of "fixing" other artist's art is controversial, one good thing I've learned from watching a few vids is the idea of using the Liquify tool on a finished piece to exaggerate the line of action on something a bit too static.

I hope you don't mind the ramble. If you're interested, I can send you a link to some vids or my playlist of tutorials I've saved.

Spice.

☕ Do you do warmup sketches before drawing? (Bonus: do you have any to share?)

No I do not do warm up sketches i just get straight into it usually. So no bonus sketches but he's a doodle page of my robot oc L-11AC

🎼 Your favorite music to draw to right now?

Future Funk music! It keeps me awake and i can groove~

📚 How many layers do you typically use?

Max i use is 50 layers, but i think i use 20-30 layers daily

Also thank you for comments too! These are literally all the things i think about. Still i do try to teach myself new stuff when i can

[masochismustango]

Hallöchen, liebe Freunde! ✌🏻🧛🏻‍♀️

I’m slowly getting into making art stuff again, but it takes a lot of time to complete it as usual. Still better than nothing, ha, isn’t it? But I also have some sketches to finish and edit, so I hope I’m able to do so soon!

Recently I’ve decided to try some more aesthetic boards to get back at making edits, so, voila - have some I dedicated to Archibald Snatcher and his female stage persona, Madame Frou Frou!

I’m not sure about calling the process of making these aesthetic edits an easy one comparing it to the pretty same thing I did about Zigzag, because I happened to face some editing/coloring problems making these two as well, but still I’m happy about solving those issues and satisfied with the results too!

Now I’m thinking about making edits about the other characters of “The Boxtrolls” cartoon - what’s your opinion on that?

Hope you like it, btw! 🧀 📦 🎩

[echonidae]

a buncha headshot portraits! three out of five portraits, i'm finishing up the last two c: the sketches here are from way back in august/september, and i fiddled with them for some weeks on end trying to make Something out of them, then proceeded to frustratedly shelf the lot of them away. so it's nice to see at least these three all finished up now :') and they were really nice to work on too ;v;

but ohoho okay, this is a lot of announcements in one single post, so bear with me a moment :3c here's a tl;dr first: 1) headshot portraits as a new commission option maybe? :0ccc 2) commissions are opening again on monday, jan. 23rd! 3) separate commission info webpage for reading convenience (particularly for folks on mobile) 4) commission rules changes: payment in full & upfront, rather than half-and-half 5) two-slots-per-person rule will be no more and folks are free to send as many orders as they want, but any ones after the second will go into the queue instead 6) also a small change with unoccupied queue slots

the rest is under the readmore :')

so, i've been thinking about adding this sort of portrait as a commission option!! fairly simple compositions but fully rendered (because i darn love painting so much; cellshading is nice and all, but coloring it all in one layer is just... heart-eyes), on the big 2600px to 3800px canvases as well c: and i'm thinking of pricing commissions like these at 28 USD (feels like a good price but i'm accepting feedback on that — the point was to add something that's just straight up fully-rendered, but for the lower end of the pricetable, and the limitations of a headshot portrait feel fitting enough on both sides ;v; )

also portraits like these are fairly quick to draw, so the turnaround time would be fairly short! add to it that 1) these are fun, 2) i could use focusing on just the face and expressions rather than elaborate poses and all, 3) portraiture lighting my beloved, and 4) these are painted, and don't take forever to figure out or paint. :D but yeah, let me know what you think of the headshot portrait option!! would you folks be interested in something like this? :0c

and now hold on a moment, i have more things to say!! xD

commissions are reopening monday, jan. 23rd, at the usual 5pm BRT (UTC -3:00)!

6 active slots (previously known as regular slots; can't believe it's taken me years to figure out a better way of calling these orz), as well as another 24 slots on queue. these will remain open until further notice; money's tight right now, hence the lack of closing date :')

there should be plenty of slots either way tho, so no rush at all! but i apologize for the super short notice orz

also, i went and got all the commission info on a separate webpage on wix instead. here you go!

should be easier to access and read through stuff, particularly on mobile — or at least i sincerely hope it is, please leave me feedback if you can!!! let me know if you encounter Problems, i've looked and combed through every bit of these four (4) pages but i might have missed stuff still, pretty please let me know if you run into any Issues! ;-;

but yeah, the website has all the rules and info and all the different options as well, with extra examples and all. on monday, you'll also be able place orders directly through there, i made a little form and all c': technically the form is already there but pls don't send requests yet, i can't reserve slots ahead of time!

also also, and these are the last things i've got to say, i promise (and thank you if you've read this far!),

a couple commission rules are changing!

1) from this new batch onwards, i'll be charging commissions in full & upfront instead of the half-half system i'd been doing up until this point. the exception is if an order exceeds $80 USD; for those ones we'll return to the half-before-sketch + half-once-finished situation instead!

but how's that? :0c i hope this is alright, but please let me know if this would make commissions just... unaffordable ;o; i do really like the half-half system, and i'd rather keep it, but it's either this or raising prices, and i don't think i can do that yet :T either way, please let me know your thoughts on the matter!!

2) the only-two-slots-per-person rule will no longer be in effect, so go ham with multiple orders if you wish on monday — the caveat is that i'll still be working only on two orders at a time per person, so if you order three things, the third one will be placed at the end of the queue c:

looking back i could've... done this from the beginning. orz it should be more convenient to send multiple orders if you have 'em!

and finally, 3) if the queue list hits its closing date with slots still available, folks who have already ordered and would like to get in the queue again can go on and grab those empty queue slots if they want, instead of being limited to two slots per person per batch, and then having to wait for an entire new batch.

i opened this exception for the last round of commissions (thank you once again to the folks who wanted repeats ;-; ) so i thought i should just make it into a proper thing instead, since it does make sense to do it anyway — the queue list is purposefully filled with a ton of slots, then left open for weeks on end to make sure everyone interested can get their orders in, so letting folks claim those remaining slots after the deadline sounds fine ;v;

that being said, there won't be a deadline for this monday's batch, so this bit technically doesn't change anything xD but i thought i should mention the New Thing #6!

and that's it! that's all!

while i'm pretty set on most of these (specially the full-upfront-payment bit — again, money's tight orz), i'm still definitely open to feedback, and to change things if something doesn't work for you folks!! please do share your thoughts on it, or send a note if you'd rather!! and let me know if you have any questions too ;v; 

i apologize for the super short notice again (and for cramming all of this into a single post) orz i'll be sorting things out until 5pm on monday, and getting these last commissions posted as well c:

thank you again for reading all of this orz and please don't feel obligated to reply to all the points if you have thoughts on only a specific one, i'd rather hear a little feedback than none at all ;o;

all in all, hope at least these portraits look nice, they were fun to work on :') Oliver, Owen and Steffan (previously known as the Swordsman/the Warlock — yup he's got a name now!); i'll get the other two of Matthew and Coriander done and posted!

thanks again folks, have a nice friday! ;w;

[martianbugsbunny]

Secret Admirers Are For The Subtle (A FrankenWolf Fic)

*sitting on the wall like Spider-Man* so basically this idea spawned bc one, I'm obsessed with the idea that Victor draws a lot, even though he only sketched in like one episode lol, and two, I was having a convo with @stardreamer28 about how Victor is the least subtle person in the universe, so why not combine the two into one fic? The gist is that he sent Ruby flowers anonymously so he could drop by the diner and "notice" them and stick around to sketch them, but Ruby is totally onto him and knows he's the one who sent the flowers. Also, the stuff Victor eats/drinks is absolutely just what I was craving when I wrote the fic lol, there's no significance in it. Read on and enjoy!

Victor closed the door to the diner behind him and hung his jacket on the coat rack next to it. He had found in it Gold’s shop, and although it had belonged to him in his old land, had paid the promise of extra attentive medical care in the future, should Gold need it. It was his favorite jacket, or he wouldn’t have bothered: dark brown, made of a thick material for lab work (or cold), and the buttons were all round gold ones.

He noticed a large bouquet of flowers sitting on the counter, the vase conveniently close to his usual stool. He went over and sat down, pulling his sketchbook and a pencil out of his crossbody bag.

“New flowers, huh?” he said conversationally. Ruby, handing another customer a plate of fries, turned towards him and smiled.

“Yeah. Funny thing, but they didn’t come with a note or anything,” she said. “And the delivery girl only knew that they were for me, not who sent them. But they’re beautiful,” Ruby added, smiling wider and brushing her fingertips across the yellow center of a daisy.

“I guess you have a secret admirer,” Victor said, trying to keep himself from turning pink. She liked the flowers.

Ruby laughed, leaning in to sniff an orange flower with lots of small petals that Victor didn’t know the name of. “There’s a first time for everything,” she said. “What do you want to eat?”

He didn’t need a menu; he had been to Granny’s more times than he could count during the Dark Curse, and several times afterwards, too. “Grilled chicken with a side of—”

“Mashed potatoes and gravy?” Apparently Ruby didn’t need him to even finish his order anymore. “And to drink?”

While Victor liked the same foods at Granny’s that Whale had, he didn’t like iced tea, which Whale had ordered with most of his meals. Victor had tried several other beverages since the curse broke, and hadn’t been too enthused with any of them.

“Surprise me,” he said. Ruby grinned, and he was definitely blushing this time. Flustered, he opened his sketchbook and began to outline the prominent yellow rose in the floral arrangement. Those were the easiest.

As the afternoon passed, Victor painstakingly absorbed himself in his drawing. After bringing back Regina’s fiancé with no more success than he’d had with Gerhardt, Victor wanted to do something truly creative, that couldn’t hurt anybody; only sit there on the page and be beautiful. And he’d found himself wanting to be near Ruby since…well, forever, really—even during the curse, there was a certain spark between them—but especially since she had stepped up as Prince Charming’s right hand. She was feisty and strong, and she cared about the town, and Victor dared to hope maybe one day she would care for him.

He downed four glasses of Ruby’s mystery beverage (after all, he had to do something to justify taking up a seat in the diner) before remembering to ask what it was. He had just finished filling in the petals of a small, sort of scrawny-looking daffodil, one of the last flowers he had to color in.

“Hey, Ruby, what is this?” he asked, gesturing towards his empty glass. She had been sitting next to him for a while, since the dinner rush was still a couple of hours away. While he sketched, she read a book of fairytales from the Storybrooke Library—“To see what they got wrong,” as she had explained.

She looked up from the story about Sleeping Beauty. “Canada Dry.”

Victor stared at her. Not just because the light coming through the windows was reflecting off her eyes like gems, but because he was somewhat surprised. “You’re kidding me. This is ginger ale? I should’ve tried this twenty-eight years sooner.” Whale had never been much of a soda drinker; he was too enthused with his iced tea, and ginger ale’s reputation as a beverage of choice for the elderly had made it sound dull. “I should have you pick all my drinks,” he teased.

Ruby laughed. “If it means you come to the diner for your meals, then alright. It’s a deal.” She had been sitting with a stool between them—now, she moved over onto the one directly next to Victor’s. “Can I see what you’ve been so busy with?”

He wasn’t about to show her the small portraits of her that he had been working on; it might come off as creepy, he wasn’t sure. (But she did have the perfect profile for sketching, and he loved capturing her smile when she wasn’t looking.)

The flowers, however, had turned out rather nicely, and there was nothing creepy about those…unless maybe it was that he had sent them as an excuse to spend time with her and she had no idea—but he had been a lot less bold since the Curse ended, and he was nervous about actually asking her out.

“You’re very talented, Victor,” Ruby said softly. The way her eyes lit up looking at the sketches made something in Victor’s core absolutely melt. His fingers itched to pick up the pencil again and draw that ephemeral expression before it faded away.

“Thank you,” he said, impressed with himself for keeping his voice from shaking. She was right there, after all, leaning over his shoulder, the fabric scent of her flannel shirt all he could smell.

Ruby smiled again, brushing her dark hair behind one ear, and hopped off the stool. She went back around the counter as a couple of customers entered the diner, lightly tracing the petals of that bright yellow rose on her way.

Victor checked his watch and began hastily packing away his pencils and his pastel crayons. His shift at the hospital started in twenty minutes.

As his hand was on the doorknob, Ruby called after him. “Hey, Victor?”

He turned around, his heart pounding. “Next time you send flowers, add a note,” she said. Victor couldn't get the grin off his face all the way back to the hospital.

[wannastayugly]

hi! i have a question/advice request about making fanart, i’ve been following you for quite some time, and i REALLY love your digital art, from the style to the way you work your colors, really everything about it is so wonderful and amazing.

I’ve been doing fanart for 3 years now, and i have a somewhat similar style to yours, the thing is, i spend a lot of time finishing a small part of the painting, like, A LOT of time, to the point where it becomes boring and discouraging and i end up abandoning the piece altogether.

My question is, is this normal? i know the more practice you get the better you become, but sometimes it feels like i’m stuck just painting a nose for a week, and i feel like i can’t get the result that i want unless i spend an astronomical amount of time on it. i’m asking you specifically because you were my main inspiration to start and make my own fanart, whenever i see one of your fanart pieces i get inspired to start a painting, and then it takes a long time and i stop, and the cycle repeats. So i would really appreciate any advice or tips <3

Firstly I thank you very, very much for your appreciation for my art. I've said this already, but hearing I'm inspiring someone else to be creative is one of the best things I can get as an artist! So thank you, this is super lovely and it's an honor to read messages like yours!

-

Before I talk more, I'd like to remind you there's no "normal" when it comes to art. Some will take hours to paint something, others days, or weeks. That depends a lot on your style, your skills, if you know or don't know what exactly you want for that painting, and even on the quality of the references you're using sometimes. We'd need to see what exactly you're struggling with, it's hard to give an advice when I don't know you nor your work. So everything I'll say here will come from my personal experience with my own style, and what I learned when I felt something like you're describing to me, ok? I hope it helps! And you can come back and ask me to talk more about about specific themes if you'd like!

-

1. You can make little studies before starting the actual painting! Thumbnail studies. Sometimes we spend a lot of time fixing mistakes we made in the beginning; sometimes the direction of the light isn't great, sometimes the angle you chose isn't the best. You can prevent that by studying that composition as a first step.

2. You need image references. You don't need to follow them exactly as they are, but you should have references to remind you what the volumes of a face look like depending on where your light source is, or how skin texture and colors look like under sunlight. Using referentes is extremely important when working with realism, because most of the sensation of realism comes from the way you build volumes/light and shadows and not from the details nor the blending.

3. You need to find out what painting process fits you. My process right now is totally based on classical oil painting techniques: getting the proportions right when I'm sketching, getting the general volumes right with light and shadows, with a neutral color, and only then adding more colors and working on textures and smaller volumes and details. A step-by-step process can help you to focus on what you want from each one of those steps, one by one, and correct mistakes earlier.

4. Don't try finishing one part before going to another! Always zoom out at the beginning and work on your painting as a whole, and when detailing try going from one part to another. That'll prevent you to get bored early and it helps giving your painting a more homogenic feeling.

5. Painting in a style that demands you to blend everything and add skin texture, body hair, fabric texture... That can be exhausting. Remember you should take breaks from painting, but also from that painting specifically. You can have more than one WIP at the same time and switch between then. That helps a lot, because you'll be solving different problems on each painting and you'll always come back with fresh eyes and new ideais to incorporate into your works.

6. Remember there are many different art styles we can call "realistic", and also that we can work in many of different ways to build that visual sensation. There's no need to blend everything! A good tip is finding a nice brush that leaves a beautiful texture behind, something you won't feel the need to erase later. You can also work with larger canvas sizes and save your work in smaller scales, in a way those brush textures won't really show up that much.

7. You can play with different art styles! I do that a lot and it helps me to keep interest in the styles I work with the most. It's nice to think differently sometimes; to find a different kind of challenge. It's refreshing! There are also moments it's important for us to ask ourselves what exactly we love about and want from what we're creating. If you feel you're questioning everything too much, or that you just can't get satisfaction from your process anymore, allow yourself to venture finding new references, experimenting with completely new styles and techniques. Finding out what you want with your art is almost a journey of self-discovery. I myself am questioning the importance of over detailing and blending right now, something I held onto for years, and I'm definitely making a style transition. If that's your case, it's completely normal and healthy! Embrace it, allow yourself to do what you really feel like doing, or to just go crazy and make the most random art ever until you find yourself in your art again.

8. You're doing great. ❤

[octosan]

Progress Update: Silence to the Eyes

Well! The new year is upon us, and as you have probably noticed, the game is not done. I'm disappointed, but I can also confidently say that it's not all my fault given what a year I've had. Still, one of my New Year's resolutions is to finish this game before 2024, so I wanted to share some of my progress on this point.

Art

I've made a lot of art progress! with the caveat that it's been a lot of progress considering I've had serious wrist pain issues throughout the year. The character portraits are all sketched up, and by now most of them have been fully lined, colored and shaded.

I've also been working on the in-game illustrations, though these are all rough WIPs and I have several more to draw.

I have roughly worked on the misc art needed like interface (I redrew the text box finally dfgkdsfk) but it's not really done. And in terms of backgrounds, I'm not the one making them so I don't really have to worry about it.

Looking at all that, I don't know what percentage of the art I'm done with, but I do thing I've made enough progress that I can reasonably finish before 2024.

Writing

In terms of the main story, I have what I consider a rough draft written up across all chapters of the game, with most of the chapters being roughly complete. The last chapter has some holes in it, but it's also meant to be the shortest chapter. Taking into account filling the gaps and doing revisions, I'd say I'm 1/3 of the way done on it.

In terms of the "side quests" for each chapter, I've got most of them fleshed out in terms of how the details are meant to go, but few of them have actually been written into the game (and of the ones that have, they are not complete.) So I've got a ways to go on those...

Music

I have made next to no progress on the soundtrack for this game. But I'm not super broken up about that, since as I recall that was one of the last things I finished on the last game. There's a few WIPs for important tracks, and I've been compiling a list of the sound effects I'll require in the future--obtaining them is the easiest part.

So yeah, not a lot of progress, but I think that once I get around to this I will be able to get through it relatively fast.

Misc

I learned a couple coding things this year, so that's neat! Mainly how to do character callbacks, but still.

In the future, I'm hoping to learn a more efficient way to code in a working inventory as well. The one I have in the demo is just a series of imagemaps, which I'm not averse to doing if I can't find a better way, but it seems like it could get tedious and complicated very quickly.

-

So yesssss. It's been slower than I'd like, but there has been progress. And hopefully in 2023, I'll have more of a handle on things and make a ton more. Fingers crossed!

[keefwho]

July 24 - 2023 Monday

10:43 PM

Today I felt very bleh, like my head was empty. Might be due to the missed sleep the past couple days so I’ll be sure to get to bed on time tonight for real. 

For breakfast I had half a totino’s pizza, a pear cup, and a couple oreos. I spent my brief free time playing Neopets games. 

The stream went okay. My warmup kinda sucked because I’m trying to figure out a way to do sketches on my sketch sheet then finish those on a new canvas while still retaining the feeling that everything is real loose. For a little bit I was just finishing them as low res thumbnails on the sketch sheet itself but the point of the sheet is to be a collection of incomplete and experimental things. Having completed drawing in it does not sit right with me but taking a sketch and moving it to a new canvas makes it feel more important than it is. The point is to make a little doodle that turned out good enough to post, not a pre-planned successful kind of drawing. Im sure I’ll figure something out. I feel there is a lot I need to improve on with my process and how exactly I color including the actual brush settings. There will be lots of experimenting in my future. Also on stream we finally got to watch more episodes of Rugrats because we watched the movie that ties seasons together this weekend in Discord. We also watching Courage and I’m thinking we will watch 1 episode of each show a day. I only did half commission time today and spent a little more time finishing an emote commission I had. 

After stream I did my workout in it’s entirety despite how physically tired I felt. I really had to push through this one but that’s kind of the point isn’t it. I meant to clean up first but I forgot so I cleaned up after my shower. In the shower I was about to ask my friend straight up if I had permission to think about them while I took care of myself but I decided to do it to something else intentionally. I’ve briefly brought this up to them before. I think it’s given that sometimes we jerk off to each other without the other knowing. However I know how she feels about being sexualized and sometimes I can’t help but wonder if she would actually appreciate me thinking about her like that on my own time sometimes. It bothers me enough that I do think it would good to ask permission beforehand or have a brief discussion about it. This might be weird of me but I’m just listening to how I feel. I respect her tremendously and want to exercise expressing that. 

For lunch I was excited to make a hearty helping of Rice a Roni with lentils, meatballs, broccoli, green beans, and onions. It turned out okay as usual but I was hoping it came out better. It was still a solid meal. I invested more time into Neopets while it cooked. I’m enjoying some of the minigames. 

I feel I did a poor job on today’s request. The whole time I was thinking about how I want to make something I can be proud of but it just wasn’t coming together. It came out okayish but I wanted to do better. Next I spent an hour working on a TOTK pic of my otter and my friend’s sona. I mostly tidied up the sketch and then completely lined it, taking extra care to do a good job so thats why it took so long. After that work was officially over but I wanted to do more so I briefly setup the new horse avatar I got so I can start turning it into my most recent horse sona. 

I spent time in my friend’s server where there was a lot of negative talk about one of my other friends about his overly sexual behavior. I felt sort of bad because it was more or less shit talking them behind their back and I was just going along with it. Usually if I talk about him with others, its coming from a place of at least mild affection. Some of this was just mean though. 

Tonight I watched my friend give me a sort of rundown of the Neopets website and some of it’s history, I liked listening to her about it. I love hearing her be passionate about anything. After that we hopped on Pony Town for a tiny bit and looked at characters people made before checking out my little house and giving each other horse kisses. I started dinner while she headed up to bed and we chatted a bit. 

Today I wasn’t proud of much. Just the usual amount of proud for doing things to the best of my ability. I did well on my workout especially, and doing that little bit of extra avatar work. 

For some reason my self perspective was very lacking today. I kinda just wasn’t there, at least not in a great capacity. Looking back there were moments that would have benefitted me being more involved in the present. Spending time with anyone is a good example because it only becomes truly meaningful if I am offering my full attention and appreciation. Tomorrow will be another day to exercise my awareness and put it to good use. 

[chena-h]

Man, it's been raining so much lately. On the one hand it's nice but oof, I do not like driving in rainy weather. Way too stressful.

So, I've been in a reflective mood lately. Sure it comes with the time of year. Creatively speaking, I feel like 2022 was pretty good for me. Im feeling more confident about things I create or ideas I get than I have in the past. I'm kinda happy about that.

Definitely focused more on writing than drawing. While I didn't publish much, I did feel great about the things I did managed to complete. Started taking more notes and being ok with wips. I feel like that's helped a lot. Head feels a little less cluttered and I'm relieved to know that I have a place where I can revisit my ideas when the time is right.

Didn't sketch or draw as much as I wanted to. It's hard because I have so many pencils and pens now (my brother even got me a set of pastels I'm excited about using). I'm not one for resolutions but I'd like to make some time to practice drawing more things. More practice in colored pencil for sure and trying to get through all my pens. At some point, I would like to venture into painting with inkwashes. Watercolors seem super intimidating to me. I've only painted with acrylics a few times and I don't really have the space for it. Maybe someday.

But yeah, this year, I want to try and work on my sense of organization when it comes to my creative projects. Art wise, I tend to be scatter brained ;w; I don't know what that will look like yet, but basically I want to balance time for writing and art projects.

Art wise, I still have that thing I was mentioning last year that I want to finish. I'm about a little over a quarter of the way there, I think? Just need to practice sketching some pieces out more before I draw the final versions. After that, I have a similar project I kind of want to do as well as a short series of portraits feat. one of my blorbos. At first, I wanted it to just be one drawing but I like all the ideas too much to choose just one orz. I also am undecided on which medium(s) to use. I'll see.

Writing wise...lol, I have so many wips now! Which is good. I do feel like I'll return to the Akira manga au series at some point. I've got more scenes from that AU (and I figured out how to end it)! There's also some one shots and a shorter series I hope to finish, but I'm very particular about the order in which I publish fics so idk when that'll be. Right now, though, the bnha fics are what I'm drawn to the most so I'll likely be focusing on those. Want to finish the first part of the series I posted, continue with the Villain AU, and maybe (maybe?) get the first chapter of the other series posted??? Gonna shoot for February for that one, but no guarantees there. There's also that highly ambitious AU fic that I want to write and publish this year, but there's still kinks for me to iron out with that one.

I think this is the longest time I've focused on fanart more than anything original, which is new for me. There are some projects related to my OCs that I have kicking around. Maybe I'll get to those later in the year. I've been debating whether to post original fics to AO3. I went on a deep dive the other night looking for fics tagged as QPR because I was curious and found way more original works than I expected. I know AO3 isn't technically for that, but I generally prefer to have one dedicated place to share stuff. I do have a RoyalRoad account though, so maybe I could use that instead.

Trying to stay positive about this year.

[agape-bakery]

Hi ! I love your blog and your idea to make a bakery is just awesome ^-^ anyway how are you ? I hope you have a good day :) I'm here to request a female mc who love drawing. And i wonder if you can make brothers react to mc who draw them when they're sleeping, eating or i don't know like you want. If you can of vourse it's not an obligation :3

I wish you a good day \(^-^)/

💫

Thank you so much! I really enjoy the location-themed blogs here like Cafes and such so I'm happy you think the same! I'm doing good! And also, YESS!! I love Artist MCs/Y/Ns because I'm an artist myself! I hope you enjoy these!

The Brothers with an F! MC who draws

Lucifer

He already knew you love to draw and didn't mind that, at least that's one good hobby someone has on his list compared to gambling and parties

If there is something Lucifer appreciates about humans, it's their art and cultures, he might take you to art museums for inspiration and have a date in a cafe and talk to you about the paintings you both saw

If art museums are not your thing, he would be a little disappointed but then again, some artists like more modern artworks and some that are shown online so he understands

And frankly, having you draw him makes him immensely proud of himself for having a talented girlfriend like you, he doesn't ask that you draw him but he secretly wants to

Lucifer occasionally buys art supplies for you but only if you've been good

"So you joined Mammon on going to the casino to draw the people there?"

"Pretty much...."

"Hmm.. I guess you aren't going to get some Copics from me anytime soon."

"WHAT-"

Lucifer is also observant and knows when and who you're drawing immediately

"I can see you staring at me."

His eyes looked up at yours as you looked away, pencil in hand.

"No, I'm not."

He's seen you glance at him several times before looking down at your sketchbook.

It was breakfast and you were sat between a sleeping Belphie and a distracted Beel so you took the time to draw the eldest when no one's looking.

Lucifer hummed and told Beel not to eat so messily as you continued to draw him.

Lucifer has seen many sketches of him and the brothers and when you give him some as a gift, he keeps it well-protected somewhere that Mammon can't steal in his bedroom.

Mammon

He absolutely cherishes every drawing you have, the boy keeps a doodle of him and you as a good luck charm too <3

He might ask that you do commissions and he gets some of it (for giving the idea and managing the commissions-) but one glare and he'll shut up with a nervous chuckle and an "H-hey! It's just a joke!"

When Mammon sees you staring at some art supplies, he checks it again when he's alone and dies inside because of the price and buys it immediately, he doesn't care if he loses a lot of money only a little bit, all he wants is to see your face when he gives it to you

"You better be grateful that The Great Mammon even thought of giving this to you!... Do-don't look at me like that! It was on sale!!"

While Mammon was napping on his couch, you hastily opened your sketchbook and started sketching him and the boy never realized

By the time he woke up, you were already finished doing 5 sketches of him and taking pictures of him for reference

"Oi! What are you doing? Gimme that!"

His heart completely melts because??? you drew him so good??? his girlfriend drew him???? for free??? and out of love????

He also draws you but it's just a stickman with a messy face but you still love it all the same

Leviathan

Finally...another Artist...AND HIS GIRLFRIEND NO LESS!!

He's so happy and giddy to show off his art supplies but he's hesitant when it comes to showing off his art because he thinks it's horrible compared to yours

You encourage him and usually learn together with him whenever he feels awful about his art

He's the Avatar of Envy so there are many times where he's compared himself to other artists so you had to be there to keep him grounded

Art Date, anyone??

It doesn't matter whether you buy art supplies or just take a break from school, it was always nice being around Leviathan

You took the chance to draw him while he was across from you and excitedly showed it to him

He had drawn himself (albeit, in a persona) in many games and animes but your drawing was more special than anything he's ever done

He looked away, avoiding eye contact as he gave you his own drawing which was you in your favorite video game

From now on, whenever the both of you wanted to give small gifts, you draw each other!! <3

Satan

A demon who enjoys impressionism art, there's something about the dreamy landscapes and colors that really makes him calm aside from reading

I think he would paint for a change of pace but gets frustrated because of how difficult it is so he goes back to reading

So watching you draw makes him impressed, drawing takes so much time to master

He doesn't mind whatever art style you have, aside from the impressionism style, he would have yours as his favorite

He understands the pain of art block so he often invites you in his room, one where the others wouldn't bother you, just don't touch anything or else you'll turn into some random animal for a few hours

He also encourages that you read with him when you're uninspired! Reading helps the imagination and the mind, and he'd be happy to recommend some for you!

You trust him with your sketchbooks and he trusts you with his books! The both of you knew the other wouldn't do anything which is why he only lets you inside his room

While Satan makes a drink for you, humming an old song in his DDD, you drew him in overalls and glasses

When you were bored, you would always draw your boyfriend in random outfits and would often show it to him (which he all loves)

"Overalls and Glasses, huh? I might wear it tomorrow." Satan grins, peeking at your sketchbook as he puts down the drinks.

Don't get your hopes too high, he isn't going to wear a maid outfit........yet-

Asmodeus

Oh? You draw? Wellll, if you need a model, he's happy to be your own personal model, but it comes with a price ;)

He loves that you draw! And would ask you to draw him

There's many artworks he likes but yours he enjoys the most, even if you aren't his girlfriend

Might ask you if you can design outfits and draw him in certain outfits so he can try them out!

Of course, drawing is not an easy feat so he'll pay you handsomely~

If you do commissions, he gets one just so he can support you

He knows that art doesn't pay much yet it is so overlooked by others

"Everywhere is art, darling, I'm surprised some humans don't know that! Of course, I'm the most beautiful art there is but I'll have you as second~"

He might blush if you draw him without him asking, he think he's desirable enough to draw without a price! After hearing that you just love him might make him blush harder! Aww, you!

He'll give you several pecks as he laughs after seeing your drawing of him! One where he was posing in one of the photos you had of him during your dates

Anatomy is hard so if you want a nude model, he'll volunteer on the spot, sure he has thoughts but if you're fully intent on getting better, he's happy to help!

Beelzebub

He's not the type to focus on art so he doesn't understand it much, that doesn't mean he isn't impressed though!

He has heard of Food Art and Food Illustrations though...Based by the Arty Event, he seems to be good at drawing food! He wanted to try it more but Lucifer forbid him in case he would eat the paper and get chemical poisoning or something-

However, if you could also draw food, he would be so delighted!!! He won't eat it, he promises!

It's fine if you don't, though, he expects that you might not understand working out and sports like he doesn't understand art

Might be clueless if ever you feel bad about your drawings, he thinks it looks really good! But upon hearing how frustrated you are, he would give you hugs to comfort you!

While Beel is a oblivious sweetheart, he fully supports your hobbies and would invite you to diners and restaurants so you can draw while he eats! He might even join you while he's eating

As he eats a huge cheeseburger, you drew him, smiling at how happy he looked

When you gave it to him, he told you how spot on you drew him when he eats and keeps it around him, he avoids it getting dirty at any cost

Belphie suggested that gets a photo frame so he bought one! Now your drawing of him lays on his bedrest safely~

Belphegor

He used to love art as much as Satan and Lucifer does but he doesn't anymore, not until you showed him your drawings

You rekindled a small flame in him that he never thought would come back

He doesn't draw because it's way too much work but he enjoys hearing you draw, the sound the pencil makes when it moves around the paper, and the smell of lead and paper makes him sleepy

He secretly likes those papers that have a nice smell in them so you buy some whenever you go out to get some art supplies

"That's way too many sketchbooks, MC."

"Nothing is way too much-"

Because he always sleeps around you, he doesn't entirely realize that you have a bunch of drawings of him in your sketchbook

It makes him warm when he sees your drawings of him

He wishes he could do more to support you even if you tell him he doesn't have to so like Beel, he keeps your drawings near his bed and looks at it before he sleeps

[danielxricciardo]

Hi love the writing! Could you do something angsty around 26 or 35 with max??

Summary: You found out Max cheated on you

Warnings: angst, swearing

Word count: 2.5k

26. “Those things you said yesterday, did you mean them?”

35. “What will you do if we break up?”

'Max is looking at you' you read what your best friend Anthony, an engineer at Red Bull Racing, wrote.

And you worked at Red Bull Racing too, you decided with Max Verstappen, your boyfriend, that this is the best way for you to travel with him. You didn't have a complicated job. You dealt with filtering the negative ad on the team and then you gave it to Victoria to deal with the articles as she knew.

'Okay, let him look,' you write on the piece of paper that Anthony wrote quickly on.

You were at a meeting with all the Red Bull Racing employees, to your bad luck. Being in the same room with Max Verstappen was the last thing you wanted at the time.

Sure, your relationship was beautiful, or it had been anyway. He was whatever you wished from a man and more. He looked like a bad boy but he was the cutest and most thoughtful man you knew and he made you feel safe even when you couldn't see him.

His words still resonate in your mind and you had to make a supernatural effort not to cry.

You knew Max Verstappen loved you. He told you that every day and showed you through the gestures he made. He never gave you a reason to doubt him, and you didn't look for scandal either.

But every time you saw her, a lump appeared in your stomach. Without wanting to, you became careful around you, looking for her or Max. When you saw them talking, you looked for any excuse to go near them.

But your fear was unfounded, wasn't it? Max loved you, you were together for two years and you were fine.

But you also looked at her. She had also had a long-term relationship with Daniil Kvyat, a relationship of almost three years and they have a little girl together. There can be nothing between them.

Anthony has told you several times that Max and Kelly have been spending a lot of time together, at least lately, and you said you weren't worried. Why would you be?

But last night all your worries and fears came upon you at once. Anthony told you he saw Max leave the paddock with Kelly and didn't come back for about three hours. He didn't want to pay attention to this thing but when Anthony went to the driver to show him some sketches he noticed a small bruise on the backside of his neck.

"Really?" he tells you laughing. "How old are you to leave hickeys on your skin? Only teenagers still do that."

You felt all the color drained from your face. Hickey? You never left anything like that on his skin.

Anthony probably realized that what he said was not about you.

"Y/N... I'm so sorry..."

"It's ok," you say and smile at him even though you wanted to die at that moment. "I need a little bath, I'll be right back," you say and get up from the chair.

You started crying in the bathroom. You were disappointed, scared, disgusted, and shocked. To learn that someone you trusted unconditionally had been lying, cheating, and had developed an emotional bond with another woman behind your back was not registering in your brain.

Yes, you weren't a model, you didn't look like one, but Max always told you that you were perfect and that no other woman compares to you.

You literally could not wrap your head around what was happening...

You hoped that your darkest thoughts would never come true, but they did. Max and Kelly. Together. Behind your back.

It feels like every nerve in your body has either frozen or left your vessel completely. Your body literally enters a state of shock; adrenaline. You are absolutely stripped. Vulnerability. Disbelief. Disgust. Horror. Anger. Confusion. Shattering, crippling, traumatizing heartbreak.

Trust, honesty, and respect are necessary for a relationship, and Max just shattered all three at once. You have been the victim of an emotional crime. You ask yourself, how could this person fuck me over like this?

I trusted them.

I loved them.

I was loyal to them.

I kept my end of the fucking bargain.

How could you emotionally manipulate me?

What was I lacking?

Am I the problem?

Truly sickening, reality-twisting, mind-fucking stuff. You just couldn't believe that this was happening to you. Infidelity is something you hear about quite often, in books, movies, the media, or to other people, but not to you. This was somebody you loved with all of your heart, who told you he loved you, who had never shown the slightest inclination of dishonesty or moral transgression or disloyalty.

"Y/N, are you okay?" you heard Anthony behind the door, the fear and worry present in his voice.

"I'm fine," you say, though no one would have believed you. "I'll be there in a moment."

You splashed some water on your face, looked in the mirror, and bit your lip. You looked like hell. The eyes were red, the small veins that irrigated the eyeballs were broken, the face was red, in a combination between the violent crying crisis and the anger you had.

What were you going to do? Will you pretend you didn't know anything? Will you tell him you knew? Were you going to break up with him or were you going to wait for him to break up with you to be with Kelly?

You finally came out of the bathroom and Anthony was waiting for you at the door. He hugged you tight and assured you that everything would be fine. But he had no way of knowing that. It was nothing more than his simple hope that his best friend would not lose her fucking mind.

The phone starts ringing. Anthony lets you go and he goes to see who's calling you. He gives you a worried look. You immediately realized that it was Max who was calling you. Tears began to flow down your cheeks again and Anthony took your reaction as an invitation for him to answer the phone.

"Hey, man," he replies, and you don't hear what Max is saying. "No, she went for a coffee and left her phone on the table. Okay, I'll tell her. Okay, bye."

You approach him after he's finished the call to make sure you don't hear Max's voice.

"He said to go to his room."

"I don't want to see him."

"I realized that. Let's go, we'll deal with this problem later."

You went for a walk. The fresh air calmed you down a bit, but you had all kinds of thoughts in your mind.

How many times has this happened? Did you really want to know that? You really wanted to know how many times he kissed her and then he would come to you and tell you that he loves you.

If Anthony hadn't seen the hickey, how many more times did he planned to cheat on you?

Did he love her? That would have hurt you the most, knowing that you failed to give Max the love he needed and had to look for it in the arms and bed of another woman.

"Just know that I understand your feelings. I've been through this myself." Anthony breaks the silence and you look at him. "To be cheated on, it's a feeling of helplessness and zero self-worth. You feel as if you didn't do enough for that person which is why they reached out for someone else sexually or romantically. You blame it on yourself half the time. You dig for answers in your memories to try to figure out where you went wrong, where things started to go in a different direction. You hope that it won't happen again. You hope that the saying "once a cheater, always a cheater" it's just a myth. They broke your trust, how could you ever trust them again, right? You become paranoid when they go out at night or they don't answer your phone calls by the first ring. You find yourself having more down and depressed days than happy days. And a lot of questions will always replay in the back of your mind. Why? Why now? Why with them? How could this be happening to you? No matter how many times you get an answer, it won't be enough. Day after day, it'll get better but worse at the same time."

After two hours you returned to the paddock. You were immediately notified that Max was looking for you everywhere and he was worried he couldn't find you. Ironic, isn't it?

"Y/N!" you hear Max's voice.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Anthony asks, standing in front of you to block your image of Max.

"No, it's okay. I'll handle it somehow..."

Anthony nods and leaves, staring angrily at Max.

"Hey, I was looking for you everywhere. Are you okay? Your eyes are a little red." he asks and if you didn't know better you'd think he cared.

"Let's go somewhere private."

You went to his room. You sat on his bed and thought about what you could say. You were thinking about what Anthony told you when you walked together.

Max hands you a dose of Red Bull and you take it, feeling your throat very dry.

"We need to talk," you tell him and you feel your eyes start to sting. It was not yet time to start crying.

"Okay? Is something wrong?"

"Is it true what Anthony told me?" you ask and you see that Max doesn't know what you mean; how would he know? "Is it true that you and Kelly spent some time together?"

His face went blank for a moment as he tried to understand.

"What you mean?"

You reach out your trembling hand to the collar of his polo shirt to lower it where Anthony told you it was the mark.

And Anthony was right. There was, in front of you, the hickey Kelly made on him.

Max didn't expect that. He looks at you with wide eyes and you hear his heart start beating harder. Sweat dripped down his forehead.

He looked away from you, numb. You discovered his secret. You didn't know if he was afraid of your reaction or sorry you found out his little secret.

"I didn't intend to hurt you," he says, and you realize he's telling the truth.

He had a guttural voice.

You smile at them. A broken smile that hid the primordial desire to cry and hit him with all your best.

"I don't care about your intentions. They're irrelevant. You didn't intend to hurt me? Well, you didn't intentionally try to keep me from harm either."

You don't know where you had the strength to look into his eyes and not cry. Max looks crushed. Because you found out? Because you're breaking up? Because he has to put an end to the affair with Kelly?

"How long was it actually going on before I found out?"

You see Max trying to think of an answer that doesn't affect you so much or destroy you at all.

"For less than a month," he answers.

One month? Where were you a month ago? In Spain. Did something happen there? Did you notice anything strange about him? To his behavior? No. You didn't notice anything.

Was he really that good at hiding his mistakes?

That, of course, if he considers the relationship with Kelly a mistake.

"Did you ever think of me when you were with her?"

He did not answer. You didn't even know if you wanted to know the answer to that. What would it be like to answer that he never thought of you and that his mind was soaked in serotonin that only Kelly could think of those moments?

"I never stopped loving you."

"I don't believe you loved me while you were cheating on me. Love and betrayal are incompatible. I don't feel safe with that kind of 'love.'"

"So? You're breaking up with me?" Max asks.

Although you still had so much to say, you no longer had the power. You were so mentally and physically exhausted that you just wanted to be alone and cry.

"There's nothing else to do, is there?" you say and leave his room.

Anthony was waiting for you. He noticed that you had no tears on your face and frowned.

"What happened? Did you guys make up?"

You hug Anthony hard and cry. At that moment you gave up being strong. You gave up pretending, even in front of you, that you were fine.

Fuck it, you weren't fine. You were far from fine.

You looked back at Christian Horner, who was presenting something on the video projector. You lost the whole meeting with the crew. You had no idea what was being said.

Honestly, you don't even care what they said. You only worked there because you were Max Verstappen's girlfriend. But for eighteen hours, this was no longer true. So what's stopping you from going to Christian and telling him you're resigning? What keeps you from going home and forgetting about Max, forgetting the last two years of your life and starting over?

"That's it for today, thank you very much, friends, and let's get back to work, yeah?"

Everyone gets up from their seats. Anthony draws your attention and beckons you to look at the garage door.

You could faint then and there. No one and nothing ever prepared you for the emotions you were experiencing then. Kelly Piquet was at the garage door, waiting for the meeting to end. She was staring at Max, but he was just looking at you.

"Can we talk a little?"

You nod to Anthony that you're fine and he can leave. You look at Max and you see that he doesn't look very good. He had dark circles and you're sure he didn't sleep last night either, just like you.

“Those things you said yesterday, did you mean them?” he asks, looking down at his shoes.

"Yes," you answer categorically, looking at his face, waiting for him to raise his head so you can look him in the eye.

“What will you do if we break up? You will leave here or-” you interrupt him.

"Not 'if I break up with you,' we've already gotten over it," you say and Max looks at you with wide eyes. "We already broke up last night. I'm still here because I haven't had a chance to talk to Christian yet to tell him I'm resigning."

"Are you leaving?"

"I have nothing to do here. I came to Red Bull Racing for you."

A tear runs down Max's cheek.

"What can I tell you to stay?"

"There's nothing left to say. Now go," you say and you feel a lump in your throat. "She's waiting for you."

Max turns to the garage door to see who you're talking about.

"I gave her a text message last night and told her it was all a mistake between us."

You smile at him. "Goodbye, Max," you say then you shout for Christian.

[zulivaris]

Art Block tips that helped me

 I’ve recently experienced art block after 3 or so months of overcoming my last one. Thankfully this block only lasted a few days thanks to some things I’ve observed and noted down from the previous time. So I’m sharing these few tips in hopes that it might help someone get unstuck :D!

First and foremost if you’re tired, sad or anxious don’t be surprised that you can’t make art, go and take care of yourself by treating yourself with kindness and patience, the sketchbooks and canvases will wait for you :)

The tips are under here:

Separate art studies from the creative time:  When you do art studies you’re there to focus on specific things, learn and understand how things work so you can apply them later in your art. Studies take a lot of energy and focus and are the opposite of the creative "flow” of making your own pieces. If you combine the two the results are either unfocused studies or stiff drawings. When you sit down at your desk ask yourself “Do I want to learn something new or do I want to create something of my own?”

When you have an idea don’t be afraid of being messy: Let’s say you want to make a picture of several cats kolo dancing in the moonlight. How do you go about doing this? Well since you came up with the idea you already have a vague image in your mind, sketch it out with simple shapes, stick figures, circle and spheres etc Don’t worry about cat anatomy, or the dancer’s moves, sketch out the essence of it. This method removes the need to be perfect or accurate. 

Ok after the messy sketch then what? Well now that you have sketched out the essence of your idea (and hopefully had fun doing so) now you go on to look for references! You put the creative process on pause and you can do a few brief studies if you need to: anatomy, color schemes, values, poses. Pick out a few of your favorites but don't obsess over them, they are a guide, a tool.

You know much more than you think. You’ve probably been drawing for a few years now. You’ve probably done some studies and drawn more than one type of subject. Then you have already internalized some of that information. I used to be obsessed with capturing the minute detail of the subject, and not be able to draw ANYTHING without reference. Instead of a useful tool, references became another obstacle to my creativity. That’s perfectionism my friend, and that’s no good. Here is an exercise a good friend of mine offered: Draw a few characters, animals and objects from imagination. Make sure that the subjects have no personal value to you (no ocs for example) so that if you make a mistake you won’t feel bad about it. Make the process relaxed and comfortable, pour a nice cup of joe, listen to your favorite music ... You will notice that you do indeed know how to draw some things without reference, and it’ll help with your confidence. 

The more you do studies the more you understand This seems evident but the more you understand your subject the freer you can be and the easier it’ll be to draw it from imagination in the future. If you really struggle with something to the point of frustration (as in you can’t get it right even with reference) It means you have to study it. Have a study list, for example: hands, perspective, color theory etc. And one of those days you want to study pick something from the list, and look for videos on youtube or useful sites like line of action etc. Only study one thing at the time. You can go from studying hands to studying arms since they’re more immediately connected, but you can’t study hands and then jump to learning perspective right after. Trust me you can learn perfectly fine with the resources online, and I’m sure you’re clever enough to do it :D

Mistakes don’t mean you “suck”  I’ve noticed that the two most common causes for art block are perfectionism and lack of self-confidence.  The two can often go in tandem which is worse :’D But let me remind you of something, you can fix your piece along the whole process. Use erasers, lasso tools, liquify , select, paint it all over etc If something looks off to you then you also know deep inside how to fix it. Useful ways to see what clunks: flip canvas horizontally (helps with placement, proportions), turn the image to grayscale (helps to check values and where your eye tends to look), look at your image in thumbnail size and ask yourself if it’s clear, see the pose’s silhouette and ask yourself if you can tell what the character is doing etc. Don’t fret, everything can always be fixed :)

Perfectionism, sometimes it stops you before you begin Perfectionism causes you to overwork a piece, it makes you draw less, it makes art stressful, it brings insecurity. Let’s remove it with a simple exercise. It can be combined with the “draw things from imagination” once you’ve drawn something you like: dont do line art, don’t shade it, keep it as simple and crude as possible and then...post it. Yes, post it. You’re not at your best? You’re only human, this will help you embrace that very human side of you. You make mistakes. So what? The more mistakes you make the more you know what you need to study and the better at art you become. Mistakes are there to show us what we need to learn. See them as another tool and not a sign of failure.

Make the process as enjoyable as possible: You like art. You love drawing. Never forget this. Otherwise why are you drawing if you don’t enjoy it? It’s easy to fall prey to the mentality of those relatable memes that “art= suffering” or “I can’t even draw the other eye”. No no no my friends, these messages are fueling your insecurities instead of overcoming them. Let me tell you what, art is fun. It is. Art is fun, because I decided to make it fun again. And you should decide on that too. Personally I adore lineart but my hand-eye coordination is lacking to do it digitally, so....I just skipped it. Yes. I skipped it. I do the sketch, I clean it up a bit and then jump onto color which I adore. It allowed me to draw more and more freely. When I draw I listen to music, make strokes with the rhythm, I take breaks often and I drink my favorite iced teas. If you don’t like coloring do it in grayscale, if you love lineart then do that etc It doesn’t mean you won’t learn your weak points in the future with studies and practice, but you won’t let your weaknesses prevent you from drawing at all. No no, you won’t let them. You draw because you want to, despite of them.

Don’t wait for inspiration, provoke it  Inspiration is not a divine and capricious muse. You make inspiration. It’s easy just collect all the things you like, music, artists, objects, characters, animals, patterns, plants etc Make boards on pinterest or similar sites, combine things you like. You like suits? You like birds? You can draw a bird in a suit, or a bird-inspired suit design, there is frankly a lot of ideas that can spring up from little things like these.

When a project stops being enjoyable either pause it for now or move on to the next thing. Pieces aren’t precious. They’re not “the one time I got x right” they are one of many. This advice goes mainly to hobbyists who can afford the luxury of passing to a new project. I have a WIP of a character who is overly complicated (I enjoy a challenge from time to time) sitting for half a month. I sometimes come back to it and add something... but as soon as it starts to create discomfort and insecurity instead of enjoyment I move onto something else. In the meantime I created 3 or 4 new pieces. If I had waited on finishing that piece I would have been severely creatively and physically exhausted. The art comes from you, not inspiration. The more art you make the better you become.

That’s about it :D I know it’s long but I prefer to be thorough and cover all the possibilities. If you have read of this: Thank you so much I hope this helps you at least a bit, if it helps only 1 other person I’d still be very happy. Have a nice one, and kick art block’s butt!

[mourntheantagonist]

I had a cute teacher au idea

so you know those ceiling tiles in schools? the rectangular ones? you know the ones. well anyway, at my school and I know many other schools, students would often paint a ceiling tile either for extra credit or as a gift for their teacher.

so I’m thinking, art teacher steve and new in town english teacher billy.

because steve is both the art teacher and well liked among all his student, his ceiling is completely full of paintings, not a single bare tile. but when billy had arrived to his new classroom, all the tiles were completely white and bare. the teacher before him had taken them all with her when she left so they were replaced. billy didn’t even know it was a thing until he’d entered some of the other teachers classrooms and saw almost every teacher had them and he’d be lying if he didn’t feel a little left out. but hey, maybe he could just offer extra credit to his students if they made one.

except they reach the last day of the semester, and none of his students come in with a painted tile.

and to make matters worse he has an after school meeting that day and their holding it in mr. harrington’s classroom. billy had seen him around school and was undeniably attracted to him. he was cute always walking around in a paint splattered apron and he’d only ever heard good things from other students and the staff.

and all of that was confirmed when he saw his ceiling. most teachers had maybe five or six painted tiles but his was covered in beautiful artwork. he spent the whole meeting staring up at each tile because he was completely mesmerized. steve noticed but chose not to say anything. instead finding his way to billy’s classroom after the meeting had ended and peeking through the window of the door to see the blank ceiling.

he waited for spring break, which was just around the corner, to acquire a spare ceiling tile and take it home with him. propped it up on his easel and pulled out the acrylics and the closest picture he could find resembling the blue camaro that roared into the parking lot everyday.

when he finished the painting, just in the nick of time, he arrived to the school much earlier than he usually did when it was still dark. he bribed a custodian to let him into billy’s classroom where he quickly popped out a center tile and replaced it with the painting of his camaro. sure to lock the door behind him, leaving no trace of him other than the painted tile in his classroom.

when billy got in that day he was stunned to say the least. the painting looked almost like a picture. he probably would have a sore neck the next day from looking up at it for so long. his students kept asking about it. asking who did it and he just had to say he didn’t know. he wasn’t sure who had done it, but he had an idea.

steve had been coming around his room a lot more frequently than he had before. dropping in during his lunch to say hi or borrow markers that he damn well knows steve already had. he was the fucking art teacher for god sake. and just before they were let out for break they had had an innocent conversation about billy’s car. that couldn’t be a coincidence. could it?

somehow his students must have been reading his mind because as they were all discussing who it could be, the girl sitting at the front of the class with her sketch pad on her desk says “looks a lot like mr. harrington’s work”. and suddenly the class breaks out into unorganized chatter. only picking out a couple of phrases from the chaos that make his heart flutter. “that’s adorable!” and “mr. harrington likes mr. hargrove!” and it takes billy everything inside of him not to ask “you think so?” instead of shutting them all up and telling them to open their books.

instead of confronting steve about it, he waited for steve to inevitably show up during his lunch break to ask for some other art supplies that he definitely already has. which he did. colored pencils this time.

all of his suspicions are confirmed when steve walks in and actively avoids looking at the ceiling. like it’s very obvious he’s trying not to look. so billy makes him look. “see the new ceiling tile?” he says.

“yeah it looks great. who made it?”

“I was thinking you could tell me that.”

steve’s eyes get wide and he starts laughing uncomfortably with a hand pressed to the back of his neck. stuttering his words.

“did you paint it mr. harrington?”

“I might’ve. how did you know?”

“apparently my students seem know your art style very well. also our conversation about my car last week tipped me off.”

“oh yeah that. I was hoping you’d forget.”

billy can see he’s nervous, which is odd. he’s never seemed like the person to get nervous about his artwork. maybe his students were right about the other thing too. but that’s wishful thinking.

“thank you. for the tile. It meant a lot to me.”

“you’re welcome.” he can see steve start to relax a bit more.

and billy decides, fuck it, and goes for it.

“my students also have this idea that this means you like me. were they right about that too?”

he doesn’t immediately deny it like billy expects. no. steve blushes. he fucking blushes. and that is all billy needs before making a glance to door to make sure it’s locked and the window is covered before gently holding the tip of steve’s chin in between his thumb and index finger, slowly angling him down, and capturing his lips in a quick but deep kiss. steve doesn’t pull away. just lets his eyes fall shut and kisses him back.

and that’s just the beginning of their relationship. their fist kiss underneath the ceiling tile that started it all.

eventually news travels around school about the two of them after a student found steve on facebook with a picture of the two holding hands at the beach. billy freaks out at first, having previously taught in an environment that was definitely not okay with teachers being out and proud. but the two are met with so much love by their staff and students and they all think that it’s super cool that the “first and second coolest teachers in school” are together. they’re both always arguing about who is first and who is second.

there’s still the occasional student who will say the wrong thing. he’ll sometimes overhear kids whispering about the two of them, using slurs, and billy is always quick to shut that down. and despite billy not taking shit from little high school freshman. it hurts a little bit sometimes. sometimes he doubts his students are actually okay with it or they just think it’s all a joke.

until it’s the last day of school before summer, and the girl who sat at the front of his class who was never anything but sweet, walks into his class after school with a large rectangular object in her hand.

it’s a ceiling tile.

six painted stripes in the order of the rainbow. it’s a pride flag.

she doesn’t say anything before dropping it off. just gives him a shy smile before walking out the door.

and billy could cry.

okay he does cry.

he definitely cries.

[morelikedoccock]

not the be THAT kind of person but could you do a quick sketch tutorial and how u do ur hands? been trying out for a while (even looking up) but gosh am i having a hard time🤣

No worries anon! I was a little surprised to get this request since I still feel awkward with hands, but I'm happy to share my way of thinking around them!

Full illustrated response under the cut!

1. Structure!!

To me, anatomy is way easier to get a better grip on when you understand and think of its structure and what it's made of. When I draw hands, I think about the basic structure points: A) All four fingers each have three segments connected by three joints, B) the thumb has only two segments and two joints, C) and the palm is one big chunk. Then ask myself, what parts of the hands move? What can stretch and what remains fairly rigid? If a hand was a machine and its joints were gears connected by metal rods, how would it move?

When I was younger sometimes I would draw circles over each knuckle of my left hand and connect them with lines. As much as it sounds kinda silly, I think it helped me conceptualize the way a hand moves a little better.

2. Proportions!

For proportions (though those change a little for every person), the forefinger and ring finger are roughly the same length, the middle finger is just a little longer, and the pinky finger is much shorter, nearly lining up with the first knuckle of the ring finger. The tip of the thumb sits nearly at the middle of the first segment of the forefinger. On my hands, my middle finger almost the length of my palm, and pretty exactly the width of my palm above my thumb joint. The length of the thumb is nearly the same length as the space between the thumb joint an the bottom of the palm. The thumb joint itself is placed just short of halfway up the palm. I know this is all a little confusing, so hopefully the illustration below helps a bit.

Again, proportions can vary pretty dramatically from person to person, so these are definitely not set in stone, but they can be useful as a baseline at least.

3. Back to structure!

Another way to think about how to draw hands is to think about how the skeleton inside is built, and how it can move. Of course, the skeleton is constrained by muscles and tendons and whatnot, but trying to think of a visual of the bones can be helpful for understanding possible movements. Digging further into muscles and where they sit and how they work also helps!

4. What you actually asked for:

Here’s a super basic thing you’ve probably seen before, just step by step: 1. Palm/mitten shape, sausages, refining, and details.

5. And finally, Practice!!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, practice is incredibly important. The more you practice drawing stuff, the better you’ll get at it, I promise!!!

Below is just the hands from something I drew last year for a different fandom. It was one of two pieces I did that each involved some ridiculous number of hands. More than half of them I drew without reference, but I did look at my own hands a few times to help with particularly difficult poses.

I have no idea what possessed me to draw these pieces (it was thirst) but after I finished sketching, lining, coloring, and rendering 30+ individual hands, I felt a lot more comfortable and confident with drawing them.

Observe and draw your own hands!! Draw from pictures of hands!! Fill whole pages with just rough sketches of different poses!! Practice, practice, practice!! Eventually you’ll know hands like (ahem, forgive me) the backs of your own hands.

Sorry this was so wordy, I hope it helps a little at least!! 🙌💕